Stockton-Con gets comics star

Friday

Aug 3, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Morrie Turner is a natural-born storyteller.

Lori Gilbert

Morrie Turner is a natural-born storyteller.

Whether recalling the time he fell asleep on guard duty at an airbase while in the Army during World War II - "Who's going to steal an airplane?" he asks - or describing how his high school reunions went from dances to lunches to a few phone calls now and then because members "got so old" - the 88-year-old Turner constantly draws laughter from his listeners.

He's been eliciting the same response from readers of his comic strip, "Wee Pals," since 1964, when he introduced the integrated group of children in the Chicago Daily Defender, the only black daily newspaper in the country at the time.

Honored repeatedly for his work as an artist, social commentator and humanitarian, Turner gains another nod of recognition Sunday when he is the guest of honor at Stockton-Con, the pop culture convention at University of the Pacific's Spanos Center.

"I remember 'Wee Pals' from when I was a kid. It was a cool comic," Millerick said. "Then after we knew he'd be coming, I've talked to several people who said, 'Morrie came to my school when I was 10 years old and I've still got the book.' He has more of a connection to Stockton than we realized."

When he wasn't drawing "Wee Pals," featuring children in an integrated neighborhood sharing their observations of life, Turner was often visiting schools. Stockton and Lodi were regular stops on his tours.

"(Visiting schools) was not only my favorite thing, I think it's a must," Turner said. "If you can, you should."

Before failing kidneys and age caught up with him and schools stopped inviting him, Turner regularly spent time talking to children and sharing "Wee Pals" with them.

"I wasn't showing them they could be a black cartoonist," Turner said. "I was showing them they could be anything they wanted if they prepared for it."

The visits inspired him, gave him fresh material, but even without them, he continues to get up every morning and begin his day by drawing. Even before he eats breakfast, he heads to his drawing board, and works all day to produce the daily strip.

"I love it. That's what I live for," Turner said. "At 88, I think if I lost that, I wouldn't want to get up in the morning. Sometimes I have ideas I get when I'm in bed, and I can't wait to get up and see how it looks."

He still sees the children of "Wee Pals" as he always did, as a reflection of his own childhood in Depression-era Oakland.

"Whites and all races were together," Turner said. "That's how I thought life was. The only difference is when we were 16, 17, we started to separate because of girls. But we still remained friends."

His grandparents were born slaves, but he didn't experience this country's racial divide until the Army stationed him in the South.

Some good came of that, though. While recovering from an illness in the segregated hospital there, he got to meet Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis, who, along with Jesse Owens, had been his childhood idols. The pair was visiting soldiers on a goodwill tour and both are included in Turner's latest book, "Black Sports Heroes," which he'll have for sale with him Sunday.

Also while in the Army, Turner got his first shot at cartooning. The lawyer, who defended him when he fell asleep on duty, worked for the company's newspaper, and Turner went to work drawing a strip called "Railhead." It was so popular that members of the 477th, part of the Tuskeegee Airmen, recalled it at reunions, Turner said.

When the war ended and he was discharged, Turner dreamed of pursuing a career as an artist, but the color of his skin proved a deterrent.

"I had to take any job I could get," Turner said.

Whatever heartache or hard times he might have encountered, he doesn't dwell on them.

Instead, he shares the joy that came with his decision to self-syndicate his work, and the Chicago Daily Defender's decision to run "Wee Pals" beginning in 1964. He was 40 years old.

The first strip features one of the pals carrying the Rebel flag and another noting, "Obviously, American history is not a required subject in the kindergarten class."

It's one of the few strips to hang on the wall of his office in the West Sacramento house he shares with Karol Trachtenberg. Certificates of commendation fill many walls, but there's not enough room for all of them. There are plaques and awards, and a photo of him with Charles Schulz.

A scrapbook holds some of his favorite works, single panels he did for Ebony, Negro Digest, Black World and other publications.

His fellow cartoonists have recognized Turner's impact and honored him with the National Cartoonist Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

In all its years, "Wee Pals" has remained constant, offering funny observations that make people think, or question their attitudes. His visits to schools had the same effect.

That's part of the reason Comic-Con, the biggest comic convention in the country, awarded Turner with its Humanitarian Award in San Diego last month.

"They start talking about this guy who was going to get it, and I thought, 'He has a similar life to me,' " Turner said. "Then they went on and I said, 'Wait a minute. I think somebody stole my life.' Then they called my name."

Organizers of the event that draws fans enamored of the latest gadgets and trends recognized a man whose work is based on the simple idea that people from all walks of life can get along.

It wasn't Turner's first visit to Comic-Con. He was the first guest speaker at the annual event in its first year.